write.as/jonbeckett

A few minutes ago our eldest daughter wandered in, and asked if it might be a good idea to do some online courses while stuck at home over the next weeks and months – to learn some new skills. After falling off my chair, I struggled to compose myself. Some explanation is probably required.

None of my daughters have ever shown the slightest interest in the one subject I could have easily helped them with throughout school or college. Other than a few days after the arrival of a Raspberry Pi, when writing programs in Python was 'fun', or those few weeks when they were learning 'Scratch', I have been more-or-less redundant. Until this evening.

My eldest daughter wants to learn web development.

She has a goal in mind (that I'm not going to share just yet) – so I'm trying to slow her to a walk before she tries to run – lining up courses on HTML, CSS, and so on. She asked if I could teach her, but I know enough from teaching business people to know that I shouldn't try to teach her. I've seen Star Wars. I know what happens. Granted, she wants to learn – which is half the battle – but I'm also her Dad, so often the enemy as well. Thankfully the internet is full of quite wonderful courses, tutorials, and certifications led by people who are not me.

At least now if she wanders up and asks 'what's the correct standards compliant HTML and CSS to make a menu of options?', I'll have a much better chance of answering than 'how do you do long division?'

A couple of years ago the kids bought me a plastic model kit of the Saturn 5 moon rocket for my birthday. It sat on the shelf in it's box for the better part of a year, until one particularly dreadful weekend some time ago when I started assembling it. Unfortunately I never got much further than that – so it has sat, partially built, in the corner of the junk room ever since.

Until today.

Given the limited opportunities to go anywhere or do anything, our sights have turned inwards in recent days. Suddenly books might get read, movies might get watched, and model kits might get built. It's worth pointing out that before the kit of the Saturn 5 arrived in the house, the only model kit I had put together since I was about 13 was a small aeroplane that became part of a school project board for our youngest daughter. I glued – she painted.

It's been fun. While the rest of the household busied themselves with Wii Dance Party, YouTube, Fortnite, or whatever else this afternoon, I tried to figure out how to glue bits and pieces together without glueing myself to them, or to the desk.

I conducted something of an experiment today. While quietly getting on with work in the junk room, I left the children to their own devices – they know they have school work to get on with, so it shouldn't be a problem. Yeah, right.

After realising I hadn't seen our middle daughter for some time, I shouted up the stairs. Apparently she was 'having a rest'. I asked if any work had been done this morning, and got an angry torrent back – claiming that just about every subject on the curriculum had been done. I didn't check, but then wondered why she was sitting at the dining table this afternoon, furiously filling pages with writing. I also wonder if she realises we could look at her YouTube history ?

To be honest, the kids have been brilliant so far. They haven't complained about not going out, and (for the most part) they have done school work during school hours. Our youngest may have tried to bend the rules a little this morning – fitting in every creative and/or exercise based activity possible, rather than pick up a book or open her laptop – but she seems to have turned things around this afternoon.

Miss 19 has missed her vocation. She has a calming influence on her sisters – letting them blow themselves out when angry or frustrated, and then quietly suggesting a way forward. I wonder if she realises quite how good she is at it ?

I think my vocation might have involved washing clothes – or perhaps answering the door. One of the huge benefits of working from home is being here to receive parcels, rather than discover them some days later in a recycling bin at the side of the house. With most of us being here, each delivery has turned into a race to see who might reach the door first. It's very exciting.

In other news, a bank we no longer have an account with has been in touch today – informing us that we can take a three month repayment holiday on our non-existent credit cards if we need to. I wonder if they only send that email out to people that don't need it ?

My better half returned to work today. She hardly slept last night – worrying about it – and then felt awful about raising her concerns, because I imagine it only added to the stress going on among her colleagues at the moment (she works in an infant school, who are remaining open for key worker's children). We put our heads together last night, and had plans in place for her return – a bucket of disinfectant for her shoes, the washing machine hanging open in preparation for her clothes, and the shower ready-to-go. Fingers crossed.

I suppose in some ways being bottled up in the house for so long, and only accessing the outside world through the media causes it's own circle of stress.

Anyway. It's the weekend. Time to drink a glass of something nice, watch something a bit rubbish, and catch up with friends and family through the wonders of the internet.

p.s. I released a new postcast last night – talking to an old friend in San Fransciso about her unintentionally notorious dating blog. It's worth a listen – you can find it at anchor.fm/jonbeckett.

At lunchtime today I volunteered for a desperate mission to the corner shop – armed with a hand-written list of groceries, and “lady things” (a term coined by our youngest daughter – figure it out yourself).

I crossed paths with nobody en-route, and discovered an empty shop – which was quite curious, given that a lady was waiting outside with a dog on a lead. I'm still curious who she might have been waiting for. Inside the shop I half-expected everything to have doubled in price, given the various local citizen journalists posting ever-more fantastical stories on Facebook. Thankfully it appears their stories are somewhat fabricated.

I found almost everything on my list before making an enquiry with the shop-assistant.

“Do you have any eggs?”

He pointed to the opposite side of the shop.

I reached the shelf where they should have been at the same time the assistant did, and started laughing. It was a very nice shelf, but it had no eggs on it. It did have a price label for eggs though. I'll give it that.

A few moments later – while arranging my treasure trove on the counter, the assistant snuck into the stock room, and re-appeared with a box of six eggs in his hand, smiling.

“I was going to keep these for myself. They are the last box. You can have them.”

We both smiled, and I didn't quite know what to say. I might have said thank-you quite a few times in a row.

On the way home, I imagined a scene holding the eggs up in the shop, light bursting from them, and the “achievement unlocked” music from the Legend of Zelda video game bursting out of somewhere.

wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:“This week on the podcast I talk to Lauren about life in San Francisco, the modern dating landscape, and her unintentionally notorious blogging journey (you'll have to listen to her story to understand why).\n\nYou can find Lauren at the URL below – the blog is private, but if you listen to the podcast, she explains how to gain access:\n\n* Blog – backinstilettosagain.wordpress.com\n* Email – laurenrors@gmail.com\n\nClick the link below to listen to the episode:\n\n* #12 – Lauren – Back in Stilettos Again\n”} This week on the podcast I talk to Lauren about life in San Francisco, the modern dating landscape, and her unintentionally notorious blogging journey (you'll have to listen to her story to understand why).

You can find Lauren at the URL below – the blog is private, but if you listen to the podcast, she explains how to gain access:

• Blog – backinstilettosagain.wordpress.com

• Email – laurenrors@gmail.com Click the link below to listen to the episode:

• #12 – Lauren – Back in Stilettos Again /wp:jetpack/markdown

While scrolling Facebook over the last few days, the mysterious algorithm decided to start sharing the posts of an ex-colleague with me. He has been absent from social media for quite some time, but in recent days – since the beginning of the Corona Virus lock-down, he has been posting humorous journal entries – his daily life and thoughts. And it's been kind of wonderful.

I'm thinking about following his lead. If enough people join in, it might even make Facebook an entertaining and diverting destination, instead of a frustrating, and often depressing maelstrom of noise, fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Anyway.

Today was a pretty good day. We were all at home for the first time. My other half had a day off, the younger children did school work, our eldest daughter baked cakes, and I excavated a rather impressive hole in my knowledge about something to do with work.

While working from home I have been sitting in the relative quiet of the junk room, while the children have taken up station at the dining table with their laptops and books. Tomorrow I'll be joined by my other half – she's working from home on the new school website.

We had a delivery today from a local produce company. They started out a couple of years ago, encouraging people to re-fill existing containers instead of adding to the single-use-plastic idiocy. You would normally wander to their shop with your empty container (of rice, flour, washing liquid – whatever really), and they let you fill it back up from their various stocks. They have rapidly pivoted to a delivery model given the current lock-down rules – and arrived late this afternoon with a selection of paper bags. We might not be able to buy bread from the shops at the moment, but we can at least make it.

We're currently wondering about acquiring some chickens from a local farm. We still have a chicken run at the end of the garden – it wouldn't take much work to clean it out and make it good once again. We had chickens when the children were young, but they were eventually killed by foxes. If we're careful, we could have an endless supply of eggs – probably more than we need, and could then help some of the “at risk” people in the neighborhood too.

So. The clock is ticking towards midnight. It's probably time to put an end to this ever-so-slightly ridiculous post.

p.s. I still haven't really got very far with the whole “read all the books” idea. Maybe the weekend might help with that.

A remarkably quiet day in the Beckett household. I was joined in the junk room by my other half, while the children sat at the dining table and got on with school work via the internet.

I will admit to becoming curious mid-morning at just how quiet the house had become, so set off to investigate. I discovered our girls sitting on the patio in the sunshine with various craft kits they got for Christmas. I'm guessing this was the “creative” part of their improvised timetable.

Discovery of the day has to be Audible Stories. Search for it – they have created an audiobook website with no fees and no strings attached. Of course they would say that – in six months time – when the world has hopefully righted itself somewhat, I imagine people will be invited to subscribe... For the moment though – it's very good.

For the record, I still prefer paper books.

While writing this I'm half watching the rest of the family play monopoly. I have NEVER seen monopoly end well. I still have memories of playing it with my family when I was young – and my Nan – my Dad's Mum – being the banker, and cheating hilariously.

The only time I've ever seen a game end more explosively than monopoly was a game of Pictionary with relatives many years ago. I don't think I've ever seen a grown adult react so spectacularly to losing either before or since.

We won't talk about the time my other half destroyed me at Scrabble, and I denounced it as “a rubbish game anyway”.

Today was our first “proper” day at home as a family – or rather, we thought it was going to be. My other half got called into work, but really just to put plans in place – she works at an infant school. Schools are running on skeleton staff to cater for “key occupations” – looking after the children of healthcare and service staff. From tomorrow onwards she will visit once a week, and work from home on a reduced schedule.

I continued working from home as I have in recent weeks, but was joined by Miss 14 and 16 – who were governed by Miss 19. They did several hours of school work, interspersed with creative, and fitness activities throughout the day.

We were held up for a time by our youngest choosing not to tell us her school uses Office 365 – so while I struggled to download an attachment from her teacher and get it into Google Docs, she could have just opened it in Word Online. That game will change tomorrow anyway – her computer was so painfully slow running Windows, I wiped it this evening and installed Manjaro Linux on it. She's been using it all evening, and seems pleased.

Half-way through the morning the local dance teacher visited to borrow a webcam from us – as with many others, she is pivoting towards delivery of classes over the internet. It says something about the outright greed and idiocy going on that the same webcam we paid PS25 for a few months ago now costs 10 times as much. I hope the government wades in and starts fining profiteers to destruction.

We're slowly lining up delivery services at home – late tonight a delivery of milk and bread will arrive – tomorrow will hopefully see flour and rice. None of it is coming from the big supermarkets, because they have already directed their delivery services to those in most need. We're going to try and only brave a visit to them every two weeks or so if we can help it – you never know – if we source enough things from elsewhere we might not need to.

At the moment it's just about “getting on with it”. We're all going to catch the virus sooner or later – it's about making sure we are fit and well in the meantime.

When things calm down and routines fall into place, I'll hopefully get a chance to catch up with a few friends via the internet. In the meantime I'm going to have an early night.

p.s. I've started making my way through the un-read books mountain.

It was both Mother's Day, and my other half's birthday today. After a panicked walk into town yesterday morning, I managed to buy a LEGO kit. This might sound like a terrible idea for a present, but my other half loves building LEGO kits – in recent years she has built the Millenium Falcon, and Poe Dameron's X-Wing. I managed to get her the cafe from the TV show “Friends” – she's been posting photos to Facebook of the kit under construction all evening. She was a HUGE Friends fan back in the day.

I will admit to gazing longingly at the LEGO Apollo 11 kit, but could never warrant spending the money on it. I think it's perhaps the best kit LEGO have ever released though.

This morning we spent about six hours in the garden together, cutting the jungle back somewhat. We had not touched the garden since the end of last summer, and it showed. It didn't help that the house that backs onto us had built an extension in the winter – we discovered several trees from their back garden thrown over the face into our garden. Without a chainsaw we have no way of removing them (and if you're wondering – our garden is huge – which is why we didn't see them until recently).

The garden is starting to look half-way decent again though – you know – just in time for builders to arrive the week after next to do the windows. Fingers crossed that will all go smoothly.

My fingers are tingling this evening – the result of being stung countless times by stinging nettles while clearing the garden. I spent most of my time cutting the grass – which sounds straightforward until I tell you we only have a push-along lawnmower. I tried to tell myself it was good for me as my arms and legs turned to rubber.

After finishing in the garden the LEGO project started in earnest, and our middle daughter stepped up to make dinner for everybody. She made a wonderful sausage casserole for everybody, served with penne pasta. I helped with washing up while she cooked.

This evening the kids have retreated to their rooms – I handed out chocolate bars. It's amazing how a few chocolate bars can bring peace to the house.

wp:jetpack/markdown {“source”:“This week on the podcast I talk to Kristin about life in Wisconsin, her earliest days using computers and the internet, working with animals, learning to become a Tattoo artist, and of course her blogging journey.\n\nYou can find Kristin at the following locations online:\n\n* Tumblr – dialogueinmyhead.tumblr.com\n\nWe got cut short by an emergency at the animal shelter before we got the chance to really talk about it – so Kristin will be back soon to tell us all about the work, the life, and the animals she looks after.\n\nClick the link below to listen to the episode:\n\n* #11 – Kristin – Dialogue in my Head\n”} This week on the podcast I talk to Kristin about life in Wisconsin, her earliest days using computers and the internet, working with animals, learning to become a Tattoo artist, and of course her blogging journey.

You can find Kristin at the following locations online:

• Tumblr – dialogueinmyhead.tumblr.com We got cut short by an emergency at the animal shelter before we got the chance to really talk about it – so Kristin will be back soon to tell us all about the work, the life, and the animals she looks after.

Click the link below to listen to the episode:

• #11 – Kristin – Dialogue in my Head /wp:jetpack/markdown